Editor's Pick: ANSYS Releases SIwave 4.0

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

When I first read the press release on SIwave 4.0 signal- and power-integrity analysis software from ANSYS, I was, of course, struck by the enhancements. But as I was digesting it, it occurred to me that efficiency was really the heart of this version. And that left me in a pickle. Everybody and their grandmother touts their product as making you more efficient. What could I say that was different about SIwave 4.0? Then, a couple of whacks on the side of the head hit me: It's ANSYS and 10Gb/s.

Ever since ANSYS emerged from John Swanson's garage 40 years ago, the whole idea has been to make engineering software accessible, powerful, and efficient so that engineers can develop cooler, more robust things more quickly. SIwave follows in this long tradition by automating a lot of features, eliminating traditionally manual tasks, spiffing up its user interface with things like simultaneous analyses and dynamic zooming, and integrating with other ANSYS CAE suites such as Icepak computational fluid dynamics solution for electronics thermal management, which, incidentally, I'll tell you about next week.

So, here's the skinny: SIwave 4.0 has new features for post-processing of results, solver enhancements that provide accurate solutions beyond 10 Gb/s, and automated error checking and geometry correction. Now, that 10 Gb/s business I mentioned. What that means is SIwave lets you go beyond the design barriers that exist in high-performance computing. Where that leads you is up to your imagination.

SIwave's automation capabilities link its electromagnetics with circuit simulation using Ansoft Designer signal integrity analysis software as well as Nexxim circuit simulation and analysis software. The new Icepak link couples electromagnetics and thermal analysis for board and package thermal effects. This means that you can characterize and stop ignoring the additional heating due to copper-resistive losses.

SIwave 4.0 has a whole bunch more going for it. You can get a lot more data about that from today's Pick of the Week write-up and from the links to datasheets and the like you'll find there. But, if this message gets to you before 4PM eastern today (Wednesday July 22), I recommend that you sign-up from for an SIwave introduction and update webinar that's happening then. You can do that from the link on the SIwave web page (see the last sentence of today's Pick of the Week write-up).

Thanks, pal. -- Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering Magazine

Read today's Pick of the Week write-up